Licensing Advent Calendar – Day 5 – LCS User License Consumption

A new post in the Advent Calendar. Today’s post is talking about almost the same topic as yesterday, but now what options there are to view the report from Lifecycle Services (LCS).

User License Consumption

In yesterday’s post, I explained that the license calculation is a microservice running outside of the Dynamics 365 application. The calculated data is a single source from where a license report in the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC), LCS, and licensing data in Dynamics 365 F&O are fed.

Yes, also, LCS does have a similar User License Consumption report available in PPAC. On the main dashboard, there is a tile available to open the report.

You need to be a Global Administrator or have the Dynamics 365 Administrator or Power Platform Administrator role assigned to your user account in Entra ID. Without administrative permissions, the report is not available.

The details and visualization are the same as the report in Power Platform. Maybe it is also good to know that the refresh time has increased over time. The first version of the report was updated every 72 hours. Later, this had been increased to once a day. Microsoft is now listing refresh times between 4 and 12 hours. I have checked the behavior in one tenant, which I use as a playground. In my case, I noticed a refresh of the report every 6 hours. Hopefully, this will increase, or it would be great if the refresh could be enforced as self-service.

Just as mentioned yesterday, you can click on tiles to get more details about which users are missing what licenses. Don’t forget about the report validation recommendations I mentioned yesterday, as you can save a lot on licenses.

Project report

When you open an LCS project, there is also a link to a User license consumption report.

When you click this link, you don’t get a tenant overview report with all of the tiles, but you get a list of users requiring a license.

In case you have invited external users, like consultants or developers, to your LCS project, they are able to open this report as well.

In tomorrow’s post, I will write about users not requiring a license for Dynamics 365 F&O apps.

There is more…

During the Advent period, each day in December, I will share some thoughts and tips related to the Dynamics 365 user license enforcement. If you have questions about this topic, feel free to contact me via LinkedIn, the comments section below, or the contact form on this blog. I will then either update one of the planned blogs for the coming 24 days or answer questions in a new post.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Enforcement Advent Calendar

I do hope you liked this post and will add value for you in your daily work as a professional. If you have related questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to use the Comment feature below.


That’s all for now. Till next time!